Matthew 7:12

So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Note: Jesus here summarized as a broad principle the common theme of more than sixty Old Testament commandments concerning how people treat each other, such as those shown below.

Similar Old Testament Verses

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.

Exodus 20:12-17
Note: These are the six of the “Ten Commandments” which address how people treat each other.

Do not say, “I will do to him as he has done to me; I will pay the man back for what he has done.”

Proverbs 24:29

You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

Leviticus 19:18

Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 10:19

You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

Exodus 23:9

Thus says the LORD of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.

Zechariah 7:9-10

… learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.

Isaiah 1:17

For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place…

Jeremiah 7:5-6

If a man is righteous and does what is just and right – … does not defile his neighbor’s wife … does not oppress anyone, but restores to the debtor his pledge, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, does not lend at interest or take any profit, withholds his hand from injustice, executes true justice between man and man, … – he is righteous; he shall surely live, declares the Lord GOD.

Ezekiel 18:5-9
Note: These verses include ways to be right with God, which are not included above in order to focus on the words relevant to Matthew 7:12.

Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

Psalm 82:3-4

You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.

Leviticus 19:15

Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.